


Among the Prophets

by Daegaer



Category: Hebrew Bible
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Prophecy, Prophets, Slavery, iron age Israel, kings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-18
Updated: 2010-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-13 18:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/140297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saul's plans for marriage are endangered when the brideprice goes missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Among the Prophets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miarr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miarr/gifts).



> Thank you to Puddingcat for beta-reading!

In the days when there was yet no king in Israel and the five cities of the Philistines were a great power in the land, a young man of Benjamin, Saul the son of Kish, looked full into the face of a maiden and knew in his heart that if he did not have her, he would die. He turned to his servant Abikish who was with him, who loaded sacks of grain into the cart in which they had come to market, and said,

"Whose daughter is that maiden? Is she not like the very swallows that fly with more speed and grace than all the other small birds of the air?"

"Let your servant ask," Abikish said, and looked back over his shoulder as he went, adding with a laugh, "Has the son of Kish become a poet this day?"

Saul smiled, for his servant had much freedom with him, and they laughed together much. Only when Saul's lady mother was present did they maintain a discreet silence, for Saul was the son of his father's wife, while Abikish was but the son of their father's beautiful Amalekite slavewoman, Tzedek-ilat, who spoke but little and smiled only when she looked upon the faces of her children. That she and her eldest son had found favour in Kish's eyes was clear to all, for why else would he have named the boy so? Saul waited by the cart, shifting from foot to foot like a child that does not know how to be still in the company of men, and his heart clenched within him as he saw at last Abikish come back to him.

"Whose daughter is she?" he cried. "Is the young woman promised to a man?"

"She is Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz," Abikish said, and his face was so solemn that Saul's heart wept within him for the loss of a girl he had not known even lived until that day. Then Abikish smiled widely and said, "She is an unbetrothed virgin." He gasped as Saul cried out in triumph and swung him round by the shoulders.

"As the Lord Yahveh lives, Abikish, I will wed that maiden!" Saul cried, and leapt into the cart. "Come, come, I must speak to my father!"

He sang the whole way home, Abikish laughing with him in his joy.

 

*

 

When Kish the son of Abiel heard his son's plea he knew many things in his heart; at first he was taken aback, thinking that it was only some little time before that he himself had been a young man with a young wife and that Saul had been but a child, running about the house in pursuit of the little lizards that sat upon the wall. Then he thought of Ahimaaz, how the man was known for his standing in Benjamin, how he was lucky in all that he did, blessed by the Lord Yahveh so that almost all of the children born beneath his roof lived. A wife of such a family would give him good grandsons, he thought, and her brothers would be a strong support for Saul once he no longer had a father's guidance. And so, after he had grumbled a little that in the days of his father young men had the respect to sit quietly and accept the brides their parents chose for them, but he supposed it was different in the days of his son, when youths were headstrong and wild and sang songs whose words had no meaning, he said,

"I will speak to Ahimaaz. It may be that your mother will speak to his wife."

Then, although he did not wish to encourage such foolishness, he could not but laugh at how his son leapt into the air and cried out as if he had won a great battle.

"You have seen the girl but once," he said. "Her beauty must be great."

"Once was enough, my father! Her beauty is like a sword come fresh from the smith."

Kish nodded, and sent Saul to see to the animals. Nothing dampened a young man down like hard work, and he did not wish his son to disgrace him by taking matters further into his own hands and presenting him with a grandson born unseemly soon.

Two days later he came to Saul, as Saul and Abikish laboured together, spreading the dung from Kish's oxen upon the garden where Saul's mother grew herbs.

"It is a foolish young man who desires no longer to be a boy, who does not know in his heart the troubles a wife will bring him," Kish said, his voice light with the pleasure of speaking to his son as if he were a small child. "Does not a boy have little cares but to sit upon the hill and watch the sheep? Does he fear in his heart for his wife and children?" He turned his eyes on the way Saul grasped the rake so tightly his knuckles were as bloodless as meat prepared for the cooking. "Still, boys grow up. Your mother says the maiden has a passable hand at weaving and is neat in her person. Ahimaaz and I have agreed – you will wed his daughter Ahinoam in two new moons' time."

Saul sang out with happiness and went to kiss his father, who stepped back with a laugh. "Wash, boy. Your mother and the women will cook a special meal tonight to celebrate the betrothal."

"Can it not be after this new moon?" said Saul, his smile as bright in his mouth as the sun.

"Will you deny the girl's mother her daughter for a mere extra month?" said Kish. "This is part of the burden of marriage, my son, you gain your wife's parents as well as your own. We will _all_ tell you what to do from now on!" Laughing, he went his way, while Saul his son and Abikish the son of his slavewoman danced behind him like young men overcome with wine or with love.

 

*

 

There were but two weeks to the Sabbath of the new moon after which Saul the son of Kish and Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz were to wed when disaster struck.

"Sir?" Abikish said, shaking Saul's shoulder as he slept. "Sir? Saul! The donkeys are gone!"

"The donkeys?" Saul said, still half in the dreams that are sent to men as they sleep. He sat up, all sleep fled. "The donkeys!"

Twenty of Kish's finest donkeys were promised to Ahimaaz for his daughter, and five bales of wool. In return Ahimaaz had promised twenty sheep, and woven garments for Kish, his wife, Saul and Ahinoam, with many other garments and jewels to ornament his daughter, and Rizpah, a slave born in his house, to be her handmaiden. For the donkeys to be gone was a shame upon them all, showing forth the lack of care they would take with his daughter.

"We have to find them – if my father should know, he will be shamed," Saul said, pulling on a tunic over his nakedness.

"I have food for the day," Abikish said. "Quick, sir, let us go before it is light."

The young men went forth from the house while the host of heaven still stood high in the skies, and frost stood upon the grass of the field. All morning they searched till the sun had climbed high, and they found no more of the donkeys than their hoofprints and their dung. At last they sat and ate the bread Abikish had brought, then searched on, far from the land of Benjamin that day, and the next, and the next.

"What will I do?" Saul said. "If I cannot wed the young woman Ahinoam I will be as one dead!"

"Do not let your heart be troubled," Abikish said, and laid his hand upon Saul's arm. "Does not Kish have many other beasts? You will have your wife."

"The very ones Ahimaaz wanted," said Saul in despair, as if he had not heard. "Why have they gone, and no other? Did you not see how he smiled at the sight of the jenny with the star upon her brow and said she was as gentle and as beautiful as any great lady's mount? It was in his heart to give her to Ahinoam." He buried his face in his hands and wept, seeing his love withheld from him.

"Saul, my friend," Abikish said, slowly and hesitantly. "Do not weep. I cannot bear to see you weep, my brother." Then he bowed himself down to the ground and cried out for pardon, that he should address his lord Saul in such a manner.

"Do not be a fool," said Saul through his tears. "Are we not the sons of the same father?"

"There is a prophet who lives near here," said Abikish. "Let us inquire of him about the donkeys."

"I have no present to give to a prophet," said Saul. "Should I go to my father and reveal why I would need such a thing?"

"Saul, Saul, I will pay," said Abikish. "Look –" So saying he dug within his belt and withdrew a piece of cloth. He unwrapped it and Saul widened his eyes at the sight of the silver and copper coins of the Philistines that lay within.

"What is this?" he said.

"Do not think your servant has this by unworthy means," Abikish said. "You know that Tzedek-ilat my mother has grace in the eyes of Kish. He allows her sell some of what she weaves, and this money she has gathered over all the years she has been with your father."

"But why does she want money?" Saul said in bewilderment, touching the coins with one finger.

"She hoped one day to have enough to buy my freedom," Abikish said, and Saul froze, his hand still outstretched.

"Then why –" He shook his head. "Why then would she give it to you now?"

"Because you do not despise me," Abikish said. "And because before you were old enough to know better, you called her _Lady_ , as if she were like your mother."

"I cannot take this – " Saul began, and Abikish seized his hands.

"I want you to be happy, will you not let me help you? Come now, maybe it will come to pass that I shall be given to you as a wedding gift," Abikish said, his voice thickened with tears.

"As the Lord Yahveh lives," Saul said, "when Kish my father has gone the way of all flesh you and Tzedek-ilat your mother and every child of her womb shall be counted free in Israel." He closed his hands upon the hands of Abikish and held him tight. "I swear it, my brother." The young men embraced and wept upon each other's neck and Saul thought in his heart that whatever should come to pass he would not forget ever again that Abikish was not just the slave of his father, and that he would touch the feet of Tzedek-ilat in thanks, even though Kish would whip him for disrespect to his mother.

"This prophet is famous for his knowledge," Abikish said. "He will find the donkeys, you will see. So come, Saul, let us go and find the jenny that shall be the Lady Ahinoam's mount, for she is as beautiful as a princess from any of the cities of the land and needs a queen's mount to ride to her wedding."

"Alas for such a princess that she will get herself a farmer rather than a king," Saul said, and surprised them both by laughing lightly. "Let us go," he said. "It seems to me that the Lord Yahveh tells me that I shall find this day what I set out to find."

So saying, Saul the son of Kish and Abikish his brother turned aside and took the road to Ramah, climbing higher into the hills and seeing coming towards them servant girls carrying jugs upon their heads.

"Is the seer in the town?" Abikish asked as they smiled upon him and Saul, for the young men were handsome and tall.

"He is new come to his house," one girl said. "Is there not a sacrifice to the Lord Yahveh this day? Go now, you will see him before he sits down to his meat." She and the other girls laughed and looked sidelong at the young men as they hurried past, but neither Saul not Abikish paid them any heed.

As Saul looked about him in the streets of the town, Abikish went to an old man who looked about him as if expecting to see something he had lost. "Sir," he said, "Do you know the house of the seer?"

"Yes," the man said. "It is my house. I am Samuel the prophet. Let you and your master go up to the high place before me, and afterwards you shall eat of the feast."

"Sir, we may not delay," Saul said. "We seek only -"

Samuel walked past him, pointing up the hill with the staff in his hand, and the young men went before him as he wished, their hearts impatient with the haste that fills the hearts of the young when the old will take their own time. Still impatient, they bowed in silence for the sacrifice and kept their silence as the seer led them to his house.

"Sir, if I may but ask - " Saul said.

"Do not bother me with lost donkeys," Samuel snapped, and it seemed to the young men that some pleasure was in his face as they opened their mouths in surprise. "I have never cared for the beasts. They have been found. You will eat." So saying he had his servants lead them to the head of the table, before all the men of name of Ramah, and had meat placed before them. "Is it not you for whom I and all Israel have been waiting?" Samuel said, muttering as he turned to his own food, "May the Lord Yahveh help us all."

"Sir, I am but a young man, of no great family in Israel," Saul said, shame colouring his cheeks at the way the man looked at him, in both irritation and amazement, as if Saul were a creeping thing of the field that had learnt to sit at table.

"The poor in Benjamin dress so, do they?" asked Samuel, waving a hand at the bright embroidery with which Saul's mother had decorated his clothes. "Even your slave boy has a fine cloak."

"He is my brother," said Saul, as Abikish hung his head at the way all the men stared.

"Eat," Samuel said, and his voice had less anger in it.

After, the servants took Saul and Abikish to the roof and laid out beds for them, saying they should sleep and go their way in the morning. Overcome by tiredness and the meal, they slept at once. It seemed but a moment later to them when Samuel rapped his staff against their legs and they awoke to the first trace of the dawn. "Go down to the servants, boy," he said to Abikish. "They will feed you and give you food for your journey home. I must speak my mind to your master."

"Yes, sir," Abikish said, and fled.

Saul looked into the face of the seer and thought in his heart that here was a man who was not like Kish his father, who grumbled about the ways of the young yet who said such things half in jest. This man would mean it in truth, he thought, and bowed his head in respectful silence until Samuel should speak to him again.

"Hear now the word of the Lord Yahveh," Samuel said, sounding as if he had within his mouth the taste of a sour fruit that he could not reprimand Saul's manners. "I have chosen you this day as king over all my people, the children of Israel, you shall go out before them at the head of their hosts and shall defeat all their enemies to the left hand and the right -"

"Sir, I am only looking for my father's donkeys!" Saul cried, horror in his heart that the seer was driven mad in his old age and knew not what he said.

" - to the left hand and the right," Samuel repeated. "Kneel, boy. As the Lord Yahveh lives, do not stand there gaping like a frog, _kneel_." He rapped Saul's ankles with his staff and nodded in grim satisfaction as he knelt. Taking a horn of oil from his belt he unstoppered it and poured it upon Saul's head, saying, "You are king of Israel."

"Sir, your servant is a _farmer_ ," Saul said. "What does your servant know of war or leading armies? Should I turn from my plough -"

"Beat it into a sword," Samuel snapped. He stoppered the horn again and looked in displeasure at Saul. "Do not stare at me so, as if I am a dotard propped by the wall. Let this be a sign to you - go home, Saul son of Kish, does not your father worry about his son, gone missing without a word? The donkeys are found. When you reach Zelzah a slave of your father shall find you, he has sent them far and wide seeking you, and you will be whipped for causing such worry when you reach Gibeah. When you reach Tabor you shall meet men going to offer sacrifice to the Lord Yahveh at Bethel. They will take pity on young fools who chase donkeys all about the land of Israel and will give you bread. And when you near Gibeah, when you pass under the garrison the Philistines have established there, you will meet a band of prophets and there, son of Kish, the Lord Yahveh shall look into your heart and see the disrespect you have for me, his prophet, and you shall become as one of them and shall prophesy with them for all your kin and neighbours to see. After you reach home, go to Gilgal. I will meet you there in seven days and we will talk further." He stepped back and indicated that Saul should go before him down from the roof. "Congratulations on your marriage," he said, with mockery, and Saul ran for the stairs as a boy runs from the whip.

Saul and Abikish set out from the seer's house and hurried on their way. When they came to Zelzah in Benjamin they met Noam, who had served many years in the house of Kish and who looked upon them as if they were small boys who had run to see the sights of the cities of the Philistines.

"Has not Kish despaired of seeing your faces again?" he said. "Surely he has sent his servants to seek for you, saying, _It may be that you shall find news of my son_."

Abikish and Saul looked upon each other's faces and said nothing, for the manner in which Noam worried overmuch was known to all the house of Kish. They went on, all three of them by a direct road to Gibeah, and when they came to Tabor they met men leading goats to sacrifice.

"Is that not the missing son of Kish?" said one. "Noam, it is well that you have found him!"

The man and Noam stood and talked loudly about the foolishness of the young and the fear that lay in the heart of a father who found his child missing until Saul felt that his heart would tear asunder from the shame of being spoken about in such a way. One man, having compassion upon him, said,

"Why did you take the lad and wander, Saul?"

"We sought my father's animals, that had gone missing," Saul said.

"It is true that almost half the herd of donkeys came back to their grazing from wherever they had been," Noam said, and his friend with a laugh about Saul's eagerness to safeguard the brideprice, handed a loaf of bread to Abikish.

"Eat, boys," he said. "Are not young men always hungry?"

Saul lifted his eyes unto the heavens and felt tears within himself that the second of the signs had been fulfilled. It was not in his heart that he knew how to command the people, nor had he sought anything more important in his life than the hand of his beloved.

"As the Lord Yahveh lives, I cannot do this," he said.

"Do not fear," Abikish said quietly. "Does not Kish look upon you with favour? He will shout, but you will not be whipped. You will wed Ahinoam and you will be happy - hold that in your heart and all else will count for nothing."

"You are right," Saul said. "Abikish, I will not wait - when I am king, I shall ask for your freedom at once."

"May the Lord Yahveh hear you," said Abikish in jest. "Every man is king on his wedding day, and does your happy fate not rush upon you?"

When they came to the place of the Philistine garrison where the men of the Uncircumcised sit upon the hill and watch the road to Gibeah there came to their ears the sound of the tambourine and the drum, the strings of the harp and the whistle of the flute rising above them. Coming down from the high place Saul saw a band of prophets, whirling in their dance, their tunics unbelted and the women's hair unbound, all singing as they came in words no man could understand. Saul looked upon them, and drew himself up, and thought in his heart of Ahinoam's beauty and how she outshone all the queens of the Philistines.

"Does not Ahinoam my bride deserve a prince in Israel?" he said, and stepped forward into the embrace of the Lord Yahveh.

By the time the first of the prophet's feet touched the road, he was already dancing.


End file.
